Michelle Rivers

Michelle L. Rivers is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University, affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. and MA from Kent State University and a BA from UC Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on metacognition, self-regulated learning, and improving educational practices. Key areas include understanding how learners' beliefs about effective study methods impact academic success and designing interventions to enhance cognitive strategies. Rivers has been funded by the NSF, APA, and the Psychonomic Society.

Education background: B.A. in Psychology (UC Santa Cruz, 2013), M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Kent State University, 2021). She previously served as a National Science Foundation SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Texas Christian University under Dr. Uma Tauber.

Teaching includes courses like Statistics and Methods (PSYC 51) and Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 131). She founded the science communication blog CogBites, translating cognitive research for public audiences. Awards include the NSF postdoctoral fellowship and APA grants. Her work emphasizes equitable educational practices and has been published in top journals like Journal of Experimental Psychology and Memory & Cognition.